‘Bought leaf factories not paying benchmark price for green tea’

Small tea growers in the Nilgiris hill district allege the Bought Leaf Factories (BLF) of violating the Government order by not paying a realistic price for the green leaf supplied by them.

President of The Nilgiris Nelikolu Micro and Small Tea Growers and Farmers Development Society (NSTF) H.N. Sivan told Business Line that there is not just a delay in realisation but the factories were also not paying the benchmark price fixed by the Tea Board.

“First of all, the committee that was constituted to arrive at a realistic price for the green leaf, announced a price without inviting the members. They fixed the price based on the previous month’s district average base price and announced the rate in the first week of the following month.

“Thus the rate was fixed at Rs 14.19/kg of green leaf in October, based on September average and at Rs 13.29/kg in November and Rs 12.42 in December, respectively. But no factory has paid the growers these rates. We are being paid much less and there is undue delay in realisation,” alleged Sivan.

He was, however, not able to quantify the total outstanding to the small growers. “We do not raise any bill. Each of the small growers supply roughly around 500 kg/ acre /month to the BLF. The leaves are processed and then taken to the market by the BLF. When the price is fixed upfront, why can’t the factories pay the dues to the growers on the supplies, instead of waiting for the teas to be sold in the market?” he asked, adding that “the factories neither pay the benchmark price nor give us a realistic rate.”

Meanwhile, industry insiders hailed the Government’s decision on formation of a District Level Price Monitoring Committee under the Chairmanship of the District Collector of Nilgiris.

The Government has ordered constitution of this 10-member committee to analyse the various issues faced by the tea industry and suggest modalities of fixing the minimum support price, improve production quality of the green leaf and so on.

The committee members include the Executive Director and Assistant Director of Tea Development, Tea Board, Managing Director, Indcoserve, President of the Nilgiris Bought Leaf Manufacturers’ Association – Ramesh Bhoja Rajan, President of Kundah Industrial Cooperative Tea Factory at Yedakad, President of Salisbury Industrial Cooperative Tea Factory, Gudalur, A M Joghee, Retired Head Master, Anikorai Village and Nilgiris Food Safety Officer.

The members will also analyse the reasons for the lukewarm response of the small growers to the replantation and rejuvenation schemes of the Tea Board, the Government Order said.